SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Assembly Public Safety Committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would enhance public safety and align the state’s parole and probation systems with best practices by expanding opportunities for people earn release from supervision.

AB 1182, authored by Asm. Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) and sponsored by Californians for Safety and Justice, would require that some people who successfully complete the first six months on parole by remaining crime and violation free be released, while others would become eligible for release. People who complete the first six months of probation without committing another crime or violating the terms of their probation would be considered for release.

Research has shown that a person who completes the initial 180 days of parole without committing a new crime or violating the terms of their supervision is very unlikely to recidivate. Research has also established that when supervision that is too intensive when it doesn’t need to be – when a person deemed low or moderate risk is subjected to the wrong kind of supervision – it actually increases the likelihood that person will commit a new crime. And yet, most of the people on parole are retained for the maximum time allowable under the law – in many cases for as long as three years, or more. A study looking at people on probation or parole for crimes in the federal system found people who earned early discharge from supervision were about half-as-likely to recidivate than those kept on supervision to their full term.